For everyone saying they will stick with chicken or beef, you must not realize or care how those animals are treated. Chickens are not cage, but many producers only allow .8 sqft of space per bird. Moreover, several companies still debeak the chickens. While cows may live a slightly better life, they are subjected to a horrible death. Cows are suppose to rendered unconscious by electric shock, which does not always work. They are then hung upside down while their throat is slit. Additionally, if the meat is to be kosher the cow is required to be fully aware during slaughter.

Now with all this said, I enjoyed some great foie gras tonight, in Los Angeles, where there is certainly no shortage.

Reading all the comments, i can't believe that some of you have actually ever visited a goose/duck farm....

i went in South of France 2 years ago and the feeding was lasting for 3-4 seconds, the animals were all gathering themselves to the entry of the feeding area and after they were still walking after that.

Disagreing with force feeding or not liking the product is a thing but lies and false information spread are another thing.

"Just because this isn't a high priority doesn't mean we shouldn't do something about it..." (or words to that effect...) Some of you seem to miss this point. We live in a world of infinite needs and finite ways to fill those needs. Because crime, schools, and taxes are more important to the city of Chicago is exactly why your leaders shouldn't be bothering with goose liver. Every minute spent on discussion of this by your elected leaders is time not spent on your schools. Every dollar spent on enforcing this law is money not fixing your roads. Each time this law is broken and has to go to court your courts aren't dealing with robberies, homicides, or rapes. (Or if this is civil court, tax evasion, corruptions, and bribery charges...) By attempting to save these geese from their fates you are allowing your own (and all of your neighbors) to get worse.

If you are dealing with a starving person, it doesn't make any sense to make sure her toenails are properly manicured. Granted, those toenails might look better properly painted, but the twenty dollars and half hour for the manicure would have been better used getting that person some good food!

Also, and maybe I'm going pretty far out on a limb here, but Peta's got lots of money. Why don't they buy out the Foie Gras farmers and then let the geese free (or raise and sell them as free range, organic, cruelty-free birds?) Cut down on the supply, price goes up, more people skip the foie gras. As potential animal problems go, this one would be pretty easy to fix with a little time and some money.

this isnt about worrying what people do or dont eat. i could care less. this issue is about saving lives. preventing needless cruelty.

and anyone that says our time could be spent better somewhere else, id love to know what you do for the community. were trying to build a society from the bottom-up, educating, and preventing cruelty to all beings-A SOCIETY THAT PUTS ALL LIVES BEFORE THE PROFITS OF SOME UP-SCALE RESTAURANT.

you think we can really be free locking up billions of innocent creatures into cages for food, entertainment, medical research, etc etc for reasons that are so far beyond selfish.

what's the worst that can happen with a ban on foie gras? save a few million lives? doesn't sound so bad to me.

Let's see, children are dying from street violence, sales taxes in Chicago will soon top 10%, and all the barking moonbats can do is howl about food? Perhaps their time could be better spent in trying to make the city more business friendly and not worrying about what people eat.

If the city council was really concerned about the citizens of Chicago, they'd allow as many Walmart Supercenters into the Southside as they could. This would provide affordable groceries and JOBS to this blighted area. But the city councilpersons would rather drop tehir pants for the unions rather than provide economic relief...

Since when do we care more about ducks then we do about people. Let's Compare.

1a) Foie gras ducks are supposedly carrying a liver so big that they can't walk

1b) People are choosing to be so fat that they can't walk causing them maybe type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attacks, asthma, having to pay for two airplane seats, need wheelchairs to get around, can't work but require healthcare, the rest of society paying for their healthcare

Which is more pressing, fat ducks who can't walk and taste good or fat people who can't walk and thankfully aren't even edible?

Finally the Da Mare & a Restaurantuer Alderman teaming up together to put this wasteless legislation in the garbage. By Ald. Moore to shove it, as he sold out to special interest like PETA. As once again Chicago will be the respectful restaurant Capitol of the U.S. With all of the vast amouts of fine dining that Chicago has to offer. And to Mayor Daley and the Department of Reveneue. Please refund Hot Doug's $250 ticket. To include all the other restaurants who got fined over this worthless City Ordinance.

To someone who commented that this has something to do with the Olympics, you may not realize that many countries have already banned this, and it is being phase out in the EU. Also being phased out in California.

I eat meat but I won't eat Foie Gras. This is not only cruelty but it is also not healthy. You never know when you are going to eat a sick duck. Just like the sick-downed beef entering our food chain, the sick duck will enter our food chain and there will be major food recall. Why risk your health by eating sick duck that has liver disease. It's not natural.

Chicago was a laughingstock for stinking to high heaven with cigarette smoke, while New York, London, L.A., and other cities cleaned up their act years ago.

While citizens and visitors couldn't visit Chicago clubs or pubs without reeking like an ashtray, the city council found time to protect fowl from forced feeding.

What an embarrassment to a city that strives to be perceived as "world-class".

Kind of reminds us of the time wasted by the city council debating the seal of Chicago years ago, because someone pointed out that it depicted a ship of the kind that might once have been used to carry slaves.

All 50 aldermen on the Chicago City Council had to file paperwork earlier this year detailing their outside income and gifts. The Tribune took that ethics paperwork and posted the information here for you to see. You can search by ward number or alderman's last name.

The Cook County Assessor's office has put together lists of projected median property tax bills for all suburban towns and city neighborhoods. We've posted them for you to get a look at who's paying more and who's paying less.

Past posts

Clout has a special meaning in Chicago, where it can be a noun, a verb or an adjective. This exercise of political influence in a uniquely Chicago style was chronicled in the Tribune cartoon "Clout Street" in the early 1980s. Clout Street, the blog, offers an inside look at the politics practiced from Chicago's City Hall to the Statehouse in Springfield, through the eyes of the Tribune's political and government reporters.